Thursday, January 12, 2012

Balancing Life As A Writer

Welcome to my Thursday

Learning to Live A Balanced Life Series

My blog guest today is a writer.

Listen to how she does it all!

Balancing Life As A Writer by Rebecca Ryals Russell

Creating balance in the life of a writer is probably the hardest aspect of a writer’s life. As a mother of four, ages 23, 20, 17, 12; a husband of 36 years who loves home-cooked suppers after his one and a half hour drive home each evening; entrepreneur of a Vacation Rental Business on our five acres in the country; owner of a 110-year-old Victorian home that is also on the Real Estate Market; AND a MG/YA Author of two current series plus more works in progress, I have to follow a fairly strict regime or nothing would ever get done.

For example: Tuesday my 12-year-old son had a home soccer game. Since my husband works so far from home we have a system worked out—I attend home games and he does away games. So I attended my son’s home soccer game along with my two young adult daughters (spending some quality time with them during the game). That evening my oldest daughter and I went to our standing Tuesday night movie date to see Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. When I got home, everyone went to bed. I began my writing day…or should I say night. With the house quiet, I answered emails, wrote blog posts and edited my current work in progress until about 2:30 am. Since my husband drops off the sixth-grader on his way to work, I can sleep a little in the morning.

Not every day requires so much juggling. Some days I can cajole my oldest son to do the drop-off and pick-up, allowing me a full day of writing in peace and quiet. It’s important to may hay while the sun shines on those occasions and often I don’t even eat until my husband arrives home.

I consider myself fortunate that my children are all self-sufficient and no longer require as much of my attention as they did when younger. But that’s also why I waited to retire from teaching and begin this new phase of my life as a writer. For those who don’t wish to wait—or can’t—you need to evaluate your minutes in each day and decide where they can be grouped for short sessions; especially while the kids are in school or napping. But probably the most important thing for a writer to do is: Just Do It.